Bellator Fighting Championships will shift from its original home on Spanish-language ESPN Deportes to FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo for the next two seasons, the U.S.-based mixed-martial-arts promotion today announced.

Live events will air Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net affiliates, and highlights packages will run Saturday nights on both NBC and the Spanish-language Telemundo.

The deal with FOX Sports Net and NBC Universal (which owns both NBC and Telemundo) kicks off with the 12-week season two of Bellator, which commences April 8, and continues into season three, which begins Aug. 12.

I just hope they're not doing too much, too fast. With barely any fighters on their roster with recognizable names, I personally think it's going to be pretty hard to maintain the public's interest.

true.but the backing of a huge broadcast company is a definite plus.its all gonna come down to marketing and advertising.if they do it right people will curb their curiosity and check it out.hopefully theyll stay hooked

I just hope they're not doing too much, too fast. With barely any fighters on their roster with recognizable names, I personally think it's going to be pretty hard to maintain the public's interest.

If you ask me, given the format of the shows and the business model of the promotion I think it lends itself very well to NOT having superstars. People have a tendancy to remember sports in segments or seasons. Bellator delivers on that concept in a way that will be very easy for a casual fan to adopt.

They can have a quick rundown show with chronicles last "season's" tourny and introduces the winners to the masses. These guys immediately become the stars of the promotion. Casual fans are not only going to remember these winners, but they are going to find themselves attached to the winners from this season as well. When you can follow fighters through three fights into a championship over the course of a very short three months you get acustom to seeing them on a very regular basis. And you're bound to start picking favorites to root for.

As long as Bellator stay true to the formula, and have network deals in place as they do now; the winners will likely become "stars" by default to the fans who follow on a regular basis.

Not to mention the fact that they had very little star-power last season and look what kind of product they brought to the masses. Serious props to Bellator on this one. I've been waiting to hear this news for a while now.

Last edited 10/20/09 10:40PM server time by bojangalzEdit note/reason: n/a